WHY IS ONE RACEHORSE BETTER THAN ANOTHER? (H. S. Constable, in the Sportsman.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1920, 4 December 1890, Page 28

WHY IS ONE RACEHORSE BETTER THAN ANOTHER? (H. S. Constable, in the Sportsman.)

" One horse beats another," says A, " Because he has more orosses of Whalebone blood " ; says B, " Beoause he has more orosses of Herod blood " ; says 0, " Beoause he has more orosses of Blaoklcck blood " j says D, " For no reason at all. They run in all shapes, and with any crosses." Admiral Roub said the same as D, and that theretore raoehorse breeding was a lottery. He said that the beßt bred horse he ever knew was the slowest he ever tried ; that some of the best mares he ever knew bred nothing that could win a race, and some of the " jadiest " mares bred the stout-eat horses. What does Mr Mathew Dawson Bay ? " You probably agree," said his interviewer, " in the doctrine of breeding from certain strains of blood ? " " Not at all," answered the great trainer. " The conformation of the mares is of far more importance than their special descent, despite fanciful theories of oroßses and' so on." I need not say that Mr Dawßon is a clever man, with great experience, whose opinion therefore is valuable. The interviewer finished by saying, " I am to conclude then that much nonsenee is talked about the turf?" "Yes," said Mr Dawson, "as about everything else." "And the nonsense is talked," said Rous, "because there are many to swallow it." " 1 onoe," he said, " heard a marine and a sailor arguing about the meaning of the word 'epicure.' It was decided in favour of Jack, who asserted that i 'an epioure waa a beggar that would eat anything.' Such," said the Admiral, "is the British public" It is the fashion of the day to recommend "in-and-in" breeding. But to say nothing else against it Darwin has proved that it ends in sterility. Now, a foal not being bred "in and-in " is perhaps all wrong, but after all it may be better than its not being bred at all. " Racehorße breeding is a lottery," said Rous. Now " a lottery," or " chance," means ignorauce of cause. "It chanced to be fine yesterday " means, the causes why it did not rain are unknown. " A horse happens by chance to be ft good one " means that we do not know the oauses that prevented his being a bad one. But people dislike Baying they do not understand a thing, bo they extract explanations out of their inner consciousness. Hence theories about in-and-in breeding, Whalebone crosses, Herod oroases, &o. Breeding good horses is not altogether a lottery, inasmuch as sensible people know that good shapes have very much, if not everything, to do with it. It is a common saying amongst raoing men that horaes run in all shapes, and therefore make and shape are nothing. Colonel Anson, a racing man, was ohaffing the late Sir Tatton Sykes about being " a make-and-shape man." •' But " said Sir Tatton, " you are yourself a "make-and-shape man." " How do you make that out ? " asked the Colonel. " Beoause if you had the ohoice of buying one or two colts equal to each other in breeding and in all other respects, you would buy the one whose make and shape^were best." Colonel Anson could not deny it. There are many like him who proclaim aloud that make and shape are nothing, and forthwith go and buy the beatmade colt they can find. The difference between a first and second olass raoehorse will often depend on differences in make and shape (only perhaps an inch here and an inoh there) that cannot be discerned by the eye, at any rate not by most eyes,

That horses run well in all shapes is completely untrue. Though there have been good SSu 8e i S L wlth bad shoulders, like Lanercost or Whalebone, with bad legs, like Velooipede, Wl * h °»! f ;knees t like Tha flying Dutohman and Whisker, with bad loins, like Bay Middleton, &0., the great proportions— as, for instance, between the hind and fore quarters or between the ends and middle piece— must be truly balanced. If a horse has too small a girth for his Bize he will be deficient in lune and heart capacity ; if too large he will be topheavy and good for little. Symmetry is everything. Action and all good things come from it, though there must be a certain degrea of power, or weight will be felt too much. There must also be a certain limit to size on the one hand and compactness on the other. Neither a horse 17 hands nor one under 15 hands is ever first-class. Experience seems to show that about the mean between these measurements is as a rule the best. Some horses are speedy, some are stayers, but it will be all in make and shape if we had only eyes to see it. The best judge of a racehorse I know tells me he has observed that good stayers are apt to be somewhat narrower to follow than the speedy ones for a short distance.

Blood in these days is so mixed that it is easy to talk plausibly about four or more crosses of Whalebone blood being necessary, or flome other such fanoy. But to bring one of these theories to anything like proof would require careful analysis of the breeding and performances of all the horseß that are trained, and then some mathematical demonstrations carried out in the doqtrine of chances. But what theorisers do this ? Given their way of proving a case I could prove anything whatever ; as for instanoe, that four oroasea of white hairs in the tail will make a first-class raoahorse. When a man gets an idea into his head he often rides it to death and can see no other. There is much lottery or chance in breeding, but it is not, as Rous said, allohance. He said that good horses breed bad ones, but they are rather less likely to do so than others equally well shaped to the eyes of the merely average good judge. On the other hand, the idea that only the beat performers oan sire a good racehorse is much exaggerated. Uafashionably bred horses, like St. Gatien, are often first-class. According to Admiral Rous, in proportion to the number of unfashionably bred ones born and well trained they win aa many races as those that are fashionably bred. Archbishop Whately was fond of composing and propounding riddles. One" day he asked, "Why do white sheep eat more than black ones ? " After listening to sundry answers, as, for instance, that black sheep absorbing more calorio require lobb food, the Archbishop said, "No, the reason is that there are more of them." So we may ask why do the progeny of celebrated and fashionable horses win more races than those of less known fame ? Then will come answers about their having more Whalebone blood in them or some such guess. Then comes the answer, " Beoause there are more of them." More are born, move are trained. Besides this, the fastest mares (that is, the best shaped ones) go to them, and the progeny having cost more get into the best training stables. I myself do not doubt that good racehorses with a string of,/ illustrious ancestors are more likely to breed successfully than others that are to most eyes equally wall shaped. But that will not be from some imaginary mystio quality in the blood, but from the extra good make and shape which the average human eye is not aoute enough' to discern.

One or two instances of what a correct eye for form will do.

One January many years ago a man went over Jock Scott's stables at Malton. When he came away, after having looked at all the horses (a great number), he said, " The one I liked best was a two-year-old by Melbourne." This colt was afterwards known as West Australian, and was the best horse of hiß day. But at the time he had never been tried or heard of. Does this look as if make and shape are nothing ? One day this same man went to see the breeding establishment at Hampton Court. Walking about the fields he came aorosa a mare and foal. After looking for a bit at the foal he said, " That foal is by Melbourne." Looking again at it he said, " No ; it is by Touchstone." Just then a stud groom came up, and said that the foal was by Touohstone out of Oanezou, by Melbourne. I have heard even good judges of horses say that no one can tell anything about a foal, they are so much alike ; but .true eyes with experience will do wonders. If there are 30 varieties of a plant some gardeners will tell any one of these varieties from seeing only one leaf ; whereas to ordinary eyes the leaves of all the varieties are exactly alike. Disposition in racehorses does not show much. Lazy ones like Lanorooat or Rataplan are sometimes first-class, as are also hottempered ones like Galopin. Some horses again are more nervous than others, but this only means that they require more patience and gentleness, They are more easily spoilt by tbe whip. If flogged when doing their best next time they won't even try to do their best, and quite right too. Then they are called cowards or curs. Fred Archer was about to ride a nervous mare called Alone, belonging to Mr Dudley Milnor, who aßked the jockey to leave his whip behind. Archer objected. Mr Milner said ho would give him £5 to do so, whereupon Archer left his whip behind and won the race.

I conclude with repeating that all depends on make and Bhapo. Formerly, if anything happened that was incomprehensible, people accounted for it by the equally incomprehensive word " witchcraft." Then they understood all about it. In these days, if a horse runs bettor tnan another that to their eyes is equally made, people explain tho thiDg by saying that it is in consequence of some mystio quality (nothing whatever to do with symmetry) that they call " running strain," or by some such term. Thus they esoape having to confess that they do not understand the thing. A horse stays well. In the teeth of the statement of Admiral Rous, with his vast experiencs, that the " jadiest mares will breed the stoutest horses," the fact is explained by the term "staying blood." But what do people mean by this term ? What makes the good stayers stay well ? It is not, they f?ay, make and shape. Then what is it? But doubtless most of those who u»e the term do not think further about the matter. Having got their expression "stout blood," though it explains nothing, they are satisfied, like the Brobdignags who could not make out what Gulliver was. At length one of then* scientists gave him a name and called him the " Ramplum Scalcatch." Then they were satisfied and thought they knew all about tho matter, though, in fact, they knew no mora than before. Give a namo to an inpomprehßnßiule thing and some people look on it aa a oompre« hensible thing.

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